Nobody here but us chickens
Runwei Xu, Binyu Wang
Two Chinese adolescent astronomers, Runwei Xu and Binyu Wang, collaborated to capture this photo of the Running Chicken Nebula, more prosaically known as IC 2944, which lies a mere 6,000 light years away in the constellation of Centaurus.
According to Lee Dyson, writing for the BBC's Sky at Night magazine, it derives its name from resembling a cosmic chicken running across the deep sky
. Dyson doesn't go so far as to explain what cocktail of stimulants one needs to have taken in order to see it that way. But I'm more struck by the revelation that it contains Bok globules. Now, that's enough to name it after a chicken!
BOK-BOK-BOK 🐔